2007 Mini Cooper S on 2040-cars

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KBB 2013 Brand Image Awards has some obvious and oddball winners

The sixth edition of the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards have crowned a wide range of winners - in a couple of cases the recipient of the laurels might say more about KBB users than they do about the actual winner. Compiled from the responses of more than 12,000 shoppers on KBB.com over the past year, there are 13 categories broken into non-luxury, luxury and truck segments "representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public."
The award categories have been revamped this year, with some dropping off, some new ones appearing and at least one other given a new term. What isn't surprising is that Honda won Most Trusted Brand for the second year running, Best Value Brand for the third year in a row and took Best Overall Brand, which wasn't on last year's list of awards.
On our own shores, in the non-luxury categories Chrysler got Most Refined Brand and Buick took Best Value Luxury Brand. Neither one of those marques won anything in last year's Brand Image Awards, while Cadillac, which won Best Interior Design Brand and Best Comfort Brand last year - those awards disappeared this year - went home without a single accolade.

Mini launches electric conversion program for classic models

Mini unveiled an electric version of one of its classic models at the 2018 New York Auto Show. While the project was billed as a one-off at the time, the BMW-owned company announced it will begin making the conversion available to customers through a program called Recharged. Details about what's involved in the build are few and far between, beyond the obvious: The engine and transmission (which form one unit on these cars), the exhaust system, and the fuel tank are removed to make space for an electric motor, a battery pack, and the required electronics. The drivetrain is rated at 120 horsepower, which is nearly twice the 63-horse output of the final Mini models built in 2000, but the battery seemingly adds a tremendous amount of weight because performance isn't as impressive as you might think. Mini pegs the 0-to-60-mph time at 9 seconds (around 5 seconds less than a 2000 car), and it quotes 100 miles of range — 14 less than the Cooper SE. Several subtle visual details set the Recharged apart from a regular Mini. Look closely and you'll spot the Cooper SE's logo on the hood, on the trunk lid, and on the center caps. Some of the cars pictured in Mini's gallery also feature this logo on the quarter panels. Inside, there's a new-look analog instrument cluster, which — to Mini's credit — keeps a relatively period-correct design. It includes a speedometer, a temperature gauge, a range gauge, and a gauge that tells drivers which gear they're in. Speaking of, there's no longer a need for owners to argue about the merits of "magic wand," remote-shift, and rod-change gearboxes: The Recharged is exclusively offered with an automatic. Luckily, Mini isn't completely discarding its heritage. It stresses that all of the changes made during the EV conversion are reversible, and that the drivetrain that's removed from the car is labeled and stored in case the owner chooses to make the car original again. Pricing for the conversion hasn't been announced yet. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Mini Hardtop's next generation could be smaller, electric-only

Mini has started developing the fourth-generation Hardtop it will release in the early 2020s. Many aspects of the car aren't set in stone yet, but the company's chief executive revealed his team is considering making the hatchback smaller than the current model by offering it only as an electric car. The cheeky Hardtop has ballooned in size since the first-generation model arrived in 2000. The current, two-door variant of the car (pictured) is eight inches longer, two inches taller, and about 250 pounds heavier than the original BMW-developed hatchback. Company boss Bernd Koerber told British magazine Auto Express that he's pushing his team to make the next Mini small again. Going electric-only would allow engineers to get close to the original Hardtop's footprint. An electric motor is more compact than a comparable gasoline-powered engine, and the battery pack can be cleverly integrated in a part of the car that doesn't extend its length. Whether Mini will manage to integrate a bulky battery pack into the Hardtop while shaving 250 pounds remains to be seen. "I would love to see Mini move back to the essence of clever use of space. That means the outer proportions on the core Mini Hardtop could be reduced. I can see that happening," Koerber explained. He added shrinking the hatchback wouldn't make it less practical. Auto Express speculated Mini might sell the current, third-generation Hardtop alongside its replacement for several years to satisfy motorists not interested in going electric. This strategy will become increasingly common during the 2020s; the Fiat 500 will soldier on in Europe after the launch of its battery-powered successor, and Porsche confirmed it will manufacture the first- and second-generation variants of the Macan side by side to give customers exactly what they're looking for. Going electric-only wouldn't be the cheapest, easiest way to replace the Hardtop. The firm can't use the BMW-sourced platform that underpins the recently-released Cooper SE because it's too big, so it would need to develop a new architecture specifically for it. Engineers would also need to figure out how to develop an electric follow-up to the John Cooper Works-badged hot hatch. None of these problems are insurmountable, but they're expensive to solve, so Mini's executives are giving themselves time to weigh the pros and cons of reinventing the heritage-laced British icon yet again.